Will Apple do a 7-inch Tablet Device?

I don't think so. Apple could easily do a 7-inch "iPhone XL" if the 7-inch form factor becomes important, but nobody can do a 7-inch iPad like tablet because too much software that defines the iPad user experience won't work.

Anybody who proposed making a PC that couldn't run a decent spreadsheet would be promptly dismissed as out of touch with business reality, yet people talk about 7-inch tablets as if they're going to be a defining market segment. The not-so-subtle underlying message is that the emerging crop of 7-inch devices are mobile computers in the iPad category when THEY ARE NOT.

iPad shipped with a capable spreadsheet (Numbers), Word processor (Pages), and Database (Bento) from day 1. The difference between a PC, cell phone, and tablet is the software it runs in addition to the form factor.

When it comes to touchscreen tablet computers, there is only one well stocked App Store. The emerging crop of 7-inch devices is unlikely to change that. If you want to apply the Windows analogy, Apple has the biggest base of software and developers which is attracting ever more investment. The window of opportunity to create a market leading alternative will not remain open indefinitely.

Some (like Google Chrome) have proposed cloud based services can take the place of native applications. Others have dubbed this "careless computing" (somebody somewhere has your mission critical data and you don't care).

Some have suggested that a high performance mobile web browser is enough (BlackBerry PlayBook). Native apps to access the web add an unnecessary layer of complexity.

In my view, it's the user experience that matters most, and Apple is leading in many areas that others can't easily replicate. In politics, there's an old game: "If you can distract people by asking the wrong questions, the answers don't matter."